Pitching on modernisation of police force, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday claimed the state is in the lower rung of the ladder in terms of crime rate in the entire country.
Presenting an outlay of nearly Rs.1,817 crore for the home department, Banerjee enumerated a number of initiatives taken by her government including setting up new police stations, expeditious submission of charge sheets by the police and swift disposal of cases.
"In terms of crime rate, Bengal now ranks 22nd which means 21 states have higher crime rate than us. Earlier (during the Left Front) Bengal used to be ranked 10th or higher. Our aim is to be the 29th state or the last in that rank," Banerjee said while presenting the department's budget in the assembly.
"In just four years we have set up five police commissionerates, which is unmatched in the country. We are also setting up 65 women police stations, of which 20 are already operational," she added.
Banerjee said nearly Rs. 13 crore has been sanctioned for procurement of new vehicles for police.
"In 470 police stations, CCTV coverage has been set up. A city Surveillance System is in the planning stages for the police commissionerates of Howrah, Barrackpore and Siliguri. The Kolkata police has installed 624 CCTV cameras in 208 major road intersections in the city," she said.
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She also said a major drive for extensive reorganisation of the set up of the Forensic Science Laboratory was underway.
She said the state police in 2014 seized 3,694 weapons, 7,452 rounds of ammunitions, 14,842 improvised bombs, 1,970 detonators and 4,762 gelatine sticks.